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New 'Gay Marriage No Thanks' group launches with 'ten good reasons' to oppose equal marriage
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Lord Tebbit: I wouldn't have been surprised if Jimmy Savile was homosexual
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Archbishop of York: Would the Church of England rather bless 'sheep and trees' than gay couples?
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Mixed martial arts fighter: 'Equal marriage could lead to incest, bestiality and child marriages'
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Maria Miller tables Public Order Act amendment protecting critics of equal marriage
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Labour MSP Elaine Smith: 'I'm against equal marriage but don't call me homophobic'
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Tory Lord Mawhinney tables 'traditional marriage' amendment for equal marriage bill
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Lord Hylton tables new wrecking amendment for the equal marriage bill
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Kiuru7 376
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That There Other David 320
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Pavlos 229
Rehan 226
bobbleobble 212
Heat of the moment and all that. Now, he should host a function for the Argentines and wear their colors during this upcoming match.
Heat of the moment? – revealed his true opinions about gay people. Yep, I’d go along with that. That’s how a lot of homophobic arseholes are rumbled. Enough excuses!
What an idiot.
He’s clearly unfit to be a diplomat if he is so incredibly stupid.
I presume he will lose his job.
Then again he is a Tory so maybe that’s wh he is a bigot.
Where does it say he’s a Tory? He was appointed by the previous Labour government (December 2009).
Why mention that he’s a West Ham fan? We get enough bad press for the minority of morons amongst our ranks as it is.
Goodness, hasn’t the standard of career diplomats dropped in recent years?
Twits (people who use Twitter) really shouldn’t use it unless they’ve learned to master the difference between a private message and sharing your thoughts with everyone.
Should be recalled and ‘sacked’! Obviously a man with NO respect for the extraordinary social progression that Argentina has undertaken. It is obvious that the President of Argentina has ‘more balls’ than Cameron and Clegg and just said Argentina is having ‘same-sex’ marriage and that is that! What is there to discuss or hesitate upon, other then pandering to the religious bigots and ‘eternal’ homophobes of the United Kingdom! Cristina de Kirchner is God to me!
As for the “gay” comment, you can bet he’ll backtrack and say he didn’t mean it because he has gay friends. He’s unfit to represent the UK.
Argentina puts us to shame, a catholic country where marriage equality is legal and passed in a record period of time, no fuss, no foot-dragging. What an arrogant piece of scum he is. Cameron should recall him, immediately and replace him with someone better qualified.
So no apology at all for the homophobia in his tweet??? Did I miss something?
I think he is sorry for being stupid and getting caught, not for what he said.
Diplomat eh? I’d hate too see him being non diplomatic. He should be recalled, given a dressing down and sacked. If he was an honourable person he would resign
He doesn’t sound very good at diplomacy. And what exactly is a diplomat doing on twitter with 10,000 followers? I thought they were supposed to be masters of discretion.
Maybe the foreign secretary should make sure our official representatives steer clear of twitter and Facebook.
He needs to go, and not even because of the gay angle. How can he represent our nation’s interests in Latin America now?
Recall immediately.
So, this homophobic bastard apologizes for calling someone gay ‘cos that obviously offends them. ‘Gay’ itself as an insult is OK. Is this the standard of ambassador the UK’s churning out these days? And you watch; NOTHING will happen. Can you inagine if he’d made a racist slur? He’d already have been recalled to London.
This man is sooo heterosexual.
My point is, if “heterosexual” were to be used as a put down in the way that “gay” is by certain people, maybe they would begin to take notice how stupid they’re being.
I’m just wondering what negative qualities being “sooo heterosexual” could imply, or just leave them up to the imagination. Could you say that the Pope or Widdy are “sooo heterosexual” if they are celibate? or does it even matter, if it is referring to their agenda? Anyway, food for thought.
Interesting point, although I would consider that homophobia could be construed as “too heterosexual” since it is they are the ones who overwhelmingly perpetrate it, while there is little heterophobia or denigration or vilification of their orientation and behavioural patterns from our side. How often do we hear of gay people hurling anti-straight epithets and insults on the streets or other public places or harassing straight people because of who they are?
I don’t think the use of the word gay in this context shows his personal homophobia, I think that, rightly or wrongly, the word is used as an insult.
I suspect the lack of apology stems from the fact that the homophobic implications of the statement genuinely haven’t occurred to the heterosexuals in government
The mere fact he deems it OK to use the word “gay” as an insult simply shows that he has zero credentials to be a diplomat.
1) He insulted those in the country he is PAID by the UK to be diplomatic with.
2) He insulted gays in his home country by deeming it OK to use it as a derogatory term.
Not fit for purpose.
Recall and send straight to Jobcentre.
He needs to be dismissed immediately for making homophobic, xenophobic comments in a country which very recently had an extreme homophobic hate crime which resulted in murder.
Yep this is just the kind of man we need representing our country!!! What a Wa@$%r!!!
Not for the first time I don’t share the majority feeling around here. I don’t think he’s a homophobic bigot. He tried to make a joke using a local chant. Silly, thoughtless, but not malicious.
This is what the article says: ‘Benjamin tweeted in Spanish, asking: “Which islands did they take off who and for being what?”’. I gather he was referring to the chant without printing it. His attempt at ingratiating himself with local fans hinges on two things: 1. “which islands did they take off” – answer: the Falklands and 2. “for being what” – answer: cowards. I don’t believe the “gays” in the chant is central to his tweet.
Anyway, regardless of the intent it does seem strange behaviour from an ambassador.
Chilean fans making gloating chants over Argentina’s defeat in the Falklands is no better than Leeds Utd and Liverpool FC supporters singing the ‘Munich Disaster Song’ or Man Utd fans making derogatory chants about Hillsborough, another issue that has been in the news recently. What had happened in 1982 was unfortunate and we should not be rubbing Argentinian noses in it. If England fans gloated over Germany’s defeat in two World Wars whenever there is an England vs Germany match (one of the great football rivalaries) there would be hell to pay.
Aren’t relations between our countries fractured enough as it is without Jon Benjamin behaving like a buffoon? During the Falklands War the UK received support (rather controversially) from Chile which was under General Pinochet’s dictatorship at the time. Argentinian-Chilean relationships were poor then and there had been border disputes between the two countries. Nowadays Chile is more sympathetic to Argentina’s claim to the Falklands, an issue that has recently raised it’s ugly head during the last year with regards to Anglo-Argentine relations. No doubt there is still a ‘neighbouring country’ rivalary which manifests itself on the terraces when Argentina play Chile. The Falklands War as 30 years ago and our countries need to move on. Argentina and Chile have both made amazing progress on LGBT rights with gays now being allowed to marry in Argentina and we should be celebrating that.
Agreed. Probably not homophobic, but a bit of a prat if, as a diplomat, he goes on record trying to be trendy and use common vernacular that then comes back and bites him in the arse.
It’s about time people realised that anything you post on the web is wide open for everyone to see, so if you are in the public eye, be very careful what you say as you are voicing a totally public statement that can then be used as a weapon to beat one about the head with.